1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to game systems and game programs that cause a game space to be displayed on a display device and, more specifically, to a game system and a game program that changes a display area according to positions of objects.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, a large number of games where a plurality of objects appear in a two- or three-dimensional space have been available. In such a game, which area on the game space is set as a display area is an important issue. When a plurality of objects are all important objects in the game, the display area is set so that all of these objects can be displayed inside of the display area.
In view of the above, a game system has been devised in which a display area in a game space can be changed so that a plurality of objects can be included in the display area. In such a game system, two frames, an inner frame and an outer frame, are set on a screen. Using these frames, image zoom-up or zoom-down is performed. Here, such a game system is specifically described below by taking a soccer game as an example. When all athlete characters (objects) are present inside of the inner frame, the image is zoomed up (the display area is reduced). When one of the athlete characters goes outside of the outer frame, the image is zoomed down (the display area is enlarged). With this, a plurality of objects (for example, a soccer ball and the athlete characters) can be included in the display area. Furthermore, using these two frames, that is, the inner and outer frames, prevents the user from feeling uncomfortable in viewing the game screen due to frequent changes between zoom-up and zoom-down.
In the above game system, a fixation point on the display area (the fixation point is assumed herein to be the center point of the display area, that is, a point displayed at the center of the screen) is set fixedly at a single specific object. Specifically, since the above game system is for a soccer game, the fixation point is set at a soccer ball object. That is, the display area is determined so that the soccer ball is always displayed near the center of the screen.
In the above game system, since the fixation point is set fixedly at a single object, the fixation point moves as the object moves. Therefore, when the object frequently moves, the fixation point and also the display area frequently move. Such a display with the fixation point frequently moving is difficult for the player to view. Specifically, it would be difficult to understand the state of movement of objects other than that of the object at the fixation point.
Moreover, depending on the game contents, the scheme of setting a fixation point fixedly at a single object may not be appropriate. For example, the scheme may not be appropriate for multiplay-type games where characters are operated by a plurality of players, that is, games where objects to which a plurality of players would pay attention are present on a single screen. In such games, if the fixation point is set fixedly at one particular object, that object is displayed on the center of the screen, and therefore the state of the object and its surroundings is displayed so as to be easy to view. However, other objects and their surroundings are not necessarily displayed so as to be easy to view.
For example, in multiplay-type games, each player pays most attention to a player character operated by that player. That is, each player pays attention to each different character. However, in the conventional scheme, the fixation point is set fixedly at only one of the characters, and that character is always displayed at the center of the screen. Such a display is easy to view for a player who pays most attention to the character displayed on the center of the screen. For other players, however, such a display is not easy to view and might be unfair insofar as viewability of the screen. As such, the scheme of setting the fixation point at one specific point in the game space is not necessarily appropriate when a plurality of objects receiving attention are present because viewability of the object at the fixation point and viewability of other objects are completely different from each other.